Thanks, Don. I have often wondered if that would work, but thought that
there might be a special foam especially for upholstery. I'll have to give
it a try.

Rich

> Rich, I haven't checked for whote kits, but I do know that you can buy
> large sheets or blocks from good fabric stores. In Philadelphia, we have
> what's called "Fabric Row" and I've been to shops that have this foam.
They
> use it for reupolstering chairs and couches. If you were resourceful and
> wanted to do it all yourself, you could go this route. I made a custom
seat
> cover for one of my scooters and reshaped the foam using this repacement
> foam. Perhaps you can find it locally or someone can order it for you. I'm
> sure this would be comparatvely cheap and would work well.

Hey, way to go!
Those little guys are great. A lot of work but great. Mine just turned five
and he loves Daddy's '67 f-100. He was in the garage at age two, trying to
turn the wrenches.
Good luck to you all!

> Help,
> I need a kickdown lever....
> Does anyone have some measurements and angles for the bends for a kickdown
> lever for a 4bbl cleveland to C6 auto. None of the wreckers seem to have
> one, so I thought if I get some aluminium tubing, I could make up one
quite
> simply. All I need is the angle of the bends and lengths.
>
>
>
> Thanks
>
> John Watson
> 81 Bronco 351C 4bbl holley C6 Auto
>
>
>

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My windshield wipers stopped working. At first they were just
intermittent, they would only start about half the time. Now they don't
move at all. I've checked the fuse (I think it's the wiper fuse) and
that seems OK. Any suggestions on where I should start looking before I
take the dash apart? Thanks for the help.

>My windshield wipers stopped working. At first they were just
>intermittent, they would only start about half the time. Now they don't
>move at all. I've checked the fuse (I think it's the wiper fuse) and
>that seems OK. Any suggestions on where I should start looking before I
>take the dash apart?

Do you hear the motor whining or anything, or is it just completely dead ?
Also you might check the washers (push) and see if that motor runs, if it does,
then I'd suspect the wiring between the switch and the motor, if it doesn't,
then I might suspect the switch or motor (unless you know the washers didn't
work ahead of time at which point you still don't know which way to go) ...

Either motor or switch is going to require pulling the instrument cluster at
least.

Ok, Ok kid, You got me on that one! But I did see a MEAN Dana 60 last
night in
a buddies '65 Shelby Mustang (yes I said Shelby) race car. Anyone would be
envious of it.
best time and speed - 9.70 in the quarter at 138 mph with a 302.

Narrowed 60, wildwood disc brakes and a 41 spline axle. He has been racing
that set up for 8 years now with no rear end
work. I have a gut feeling a 41 spline axle WOULD be hard to tear up. It
was Very wicked looking!
And to think he is considering going with a 9 inch in its place. He thinks
it might be a little overkill.

In some weird way that reminded me ... I picked up my front axle a couple days
ago from the shop and he warned me about driving on the highway with the hubs
locked in ... said it was bad for them and should be avoided because it would
be driving on the coast side of the gear ...

Seemed to me they were kind of built that way so they should be able to take
it ... now I understand doing that for long periods (like 10,000 miles or so)
would probably be bad, but I've had a couple trips home for Christmas where
it took 4 hours and the truck was out of 4 most of the way but needed the hubs
locked "just in case" as the roads were pretty nasty ...

Any thoughts on this ? Generally the truck sees maybe only a few trips trips
over a couple hours in length (hence 65mph+ for nearly that amount of time),
maybe 2 maximum where the hubs would be locked in per year ...

Just looking for your experiences/thoughts on how this works ... sometimes I'm
a wimp who doesn't want to venture out into 2' of snow just to lock in the hubs,
I'd rather do that before I leave the garage ...

wish wrote:
>
> >Don't make me remind you of my FRONT disk brake Dana-60 top pinion, reverse
>
> >rotation axle I have "just there" for a spare! <thwap!> ;-)
> >
>
> In some weird way that reminded me ... I picked up my front axle a couple days
> ago from the shop and he warned me about driving on the highway with the hubs
> locked in ... said it was bad for them and should be avoided because it would
> be driving on the coast side of the gear ...
>
> Seemed to me they were kind of built that way so they should be able to take
> it ... now I understand doing that for long periods (like 10,000 miles or so)
> would probably be bad, but I've had a couple trips home for Christmas where
> it took 4 hours and the truck was out of 4 most of the way but needed the hubs
> locked "just in case" as the roads were pretty nasty ...
>
> Any thoughts on this ? Generally the truck sees maybe only a few trips trips
> over a couple hours in length (hence 65mph+ for nearly that amount of time),
> maybe 2 maximum where the hubs would be locked in per year ...
>
> Just looking for your experiences/thoughts on how this works ... sometimes I'm
> a wimp who doesn't want to venture out into 2' of snow just to lock in the hubs,
> I'd rather do that before I leave the garage ...
>

It may be running on coast side of gears, but under zero load. Should
run forever that way. I'd be much more worried (if I was going to worry
about anything) about diff axle seals leaking, because water and gunk
usually gets up inside those axle tubes and makes inner axle seal
running surface rusty, eating up axle seals quick.

> <snip>
>
> In some weird way that reminded me ... I picked up my front axle a couple days
> ago from the shop and he warned me about driving on the highway with the hubs
> locked in ... said it was bad for them and should be avoided because it would
> be driving on the coast side of the gear ...
>
> Seemed to me they were kind of built that way so they should be able to take
> it ... now I understand doing that for long periods (like 10,000 miles or so)
> would probably be bad, but I've had a couple trips home for Christmas where
> it took 4 hours and the truck was out of 4 most of the way but needed the hubs
> locked "just in case" as the roads were pretty nasty ...

<snip>
I've been running mine with the hubs locked in for the last two years (about 25k
miles) with no probs. The PO run them locked in most of the time too.

Congrats on the newborn! My wife and I are expecting our first in Jan.
Currently we are not aware if it's a boy or a girl because we would like to
be surprised, but either way it will be surrounded by Blue Ovals.

We did however get a new addition to the family today; a 1979 F150 Supercab
4x4. I plan on "resto-building" this truck over the next two years.

A few weeks ago there was a discussion on powder coating. I checked with my
local coater, and he told me that if I have the frame acid dipped and then
brought directly to them, he could powder coat the whole thing for $150. If
they cleaned it up, it would run an additional $100. I thought that this
was a reasonable price either way considering the fact that I just dropped
$80 there for 7 small suspension pieces.

Our local track has a bomber class WB minimum of 104" which allows the
Tbirds all the way up to brand new (one of the owners is a ford fan :-)) but
they don't allow rack and pinion because they are trying to force people to
use the older clunkers so they did defeat the chevy clans plans to stick to
the 112" minimum to make the metric frame supreme and keep the good fords
off the track. My continental had a 127" wb, WOW! I just like to watch the
late model birds on the track, they look really cool, easily matching the
cameros for cool looks. One of the issues I have with the fords is they
don't have too many real racey looking cars like the chevies. The Torinos
were cool and the late model birds but that's about it :-( No one in his
right mind will bomber a torino.......but birds are a dime a dozen like the
cameros :-) They just need a lot of modification to meet the rules.

> to use the 84ish body style, unfortunately the way the rules are written
they
> heavily favor chubbies ... at least the specs seem that way as they put
the
> full size Ford's against the intermediate GM's because of the way they're
written.

I agree with OX but if you keep them locked but the xfer case in 2wd the
seals will be lubed and should last better than if you DON'T lock them I
would think? The axle ujoints will also last longer if they are run
continuously.

One thing you don't want to do is run in 4w with them locked on pavement
because it multiplies the torque load on the gears, especially in turns due
to axle wrap and can put enough load on them to make them wear much faster
than otherwise. Ujoints will also suffer in the drive shafts for the same
reason.

> It may be running on coast side of gears, but under zero load. Should
> run forever that way. I'd be much more worried (if I was going to worry
> about anything) about diff axle seals leaking, because water and gunk
> usually gets up inside those axle tubes and makes inner axle seal
> running surface rusty, eating up axle seals quick.
>
> OX

You should be able to bend as you go with new al tubing. The angles aren't
that critical, it just has to clear the fire wall and engine etc..
throughout it's travel, piece a cake -) If you don't want to risk messing
up expensive tubing use some old brake line as a template or pattern first
:-)

Well.......they do have to allow for new operators I suppose.....:-) I'm
training two new ones right now and when I'm not there the machine runs bad
parts so......:-) One day a week for double pay which is why I changed my
sig to "Semi". Swat happens when you have "Cliques" and dumb supervisors
:-) New guy seems like he might get it though so the future of ford
starters is still pretty good :-)

> > to repeat very close, part after part. (assuming they have good
management
> > and their equipment is kept up of course......:-))
> >
>
> They were consistant, but at about .040 per axle, I don't think they
> were very close. Maybe they did it do allow quite a bit of shim removal
> if ever needed ??
>
> OX

Any 4x4 is a good winter vehicle if you learn how to drive it and put tires
with bumps on it :-) I personally am very partial to LS both ends but at
least on the rear for sure, make a heck of a difference on the real slick
stuff like Ice :-) I prefer the sticks for winter, snow, mud driving
because it's too easy to abuse an auto in a stuck but a good cooler on an
auto goes a long way there too :-) Can't comment on the price, sorry......

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Well, started to put the 351M back together this evening (now as a 400).
Didn't get too far before running into a bearing clearance problem. Yes,
this is my first rebuild, but I was working with a friend who is
engine-savvy (on bowties, anyway).

The problem lies in the main crank bearing clearances. I was getting
anywhere from .0025" to .002" clearance when I torqued them down to the spec
in my Haynes manual- 40 to 45 ft-lbs (which seems way too low). The '77
engine calls for this torque, while the '78 and '79 calls for 95 to 105
ft-lbs. The spec. range for clearance is .0008" to .0015", so I'm pretty
far over.

Since Dave thought that 45 lbs had to be wrong, we went up to 90 lbs torque
and re-checked. This helped some, but I'm still in the .0015 to .002"
range- too loose. Here are some possible reasons:

-Plastigage is old, maybe 5 years in his toolbox- could this change the
accuracy?
-It was pretty cold in the garage, about 45F maybe- would this be enough to
open the clearances?
-Machinist overdid the crank, when he ground it to .010 under
-My Clevite 77 +.010 bearings are incorrect

I guess I'm going to pick up some fresh Plastigage and borrow a c-clamp
micrometer tomorrow. I'd appreciate any other suggestions or things to
check. What's the deal with the 45 ft-lbs main bearing torque- is this
....

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